Chapter 1575: Tackling Cyan Earth City

7:20 pm, 12 hours and 40 minutes until the end of the Nation War.

Boom!

After 7 hours of long battle, the northern gate of Sky Barren City finally crumbled to our assault. Li Chengfeng was the first player to rush into the city and take out a group of shielders with Dragonblade Revolution. Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Gui Guzi and more were following right behind him. After our dragon warrior sustained heavy damage flying in headfirst, Murong Mingyue cast Kiss of the Goddess of Life and healed him back to full.

"Kill!"

Ignoring the arrows peppering against my Scarlet Dragon Armor from nearly every direction, I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and cast Xuanyuan Art. There was no cause for concern since most of the archers were incapable of piercing my Defense, not to mention that my counterattack was absolutely torturous for the NPCs and the players of Sky Barren City. Not even the Sky Knights Tear Stain had deployed as her trump card could stop me from casting Xuanyuan Art every 6 minutes or so. In the end, all of her efforts turned out to be in vain.

……

Pa!

Tear Stain’s HP bar showed 71% as she sat on a heavily damaged section of a wall. Her eyes were reddened, and she looked like she was a moment away from bursting into tears. "Is this the end? Was Nation Guardian and Sky Barren City still not enough to stop Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls? Just where did we go wrong in this war?"

Li Chengfeng replied coolly while floating in the sky, "You went wrong from the moment you chose the wrong side. Lu Chen gave you Sunset City for free because of the love you shared with Candlelight Shadow, and yet you betrayed his trust by working together with the Northern Alliance and attacking the China server once more. So, we retaliated by invading Burning City. It is that simple!"

Tear Stain gritted her teeth and abruptly rose into the air. Standing on equal footing as Li Chengfeng, she responded, "I’ve never regretted joining the Northern Alliance, much less the decision I’ve made back then. I know that Lu Chen was just using me to keep the Northern Alliance in check, and I definitely know that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls doesn’t care for the wellbeing of Candlelight Shadow’s friends. Save your lies for someone else! You’re not going to gaslight me!"

"It’s fine if you don’t believe me. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to die here."

Li Chengfeng launched his attack right after he finished his sentence. The Cyan Peak Halberd slithered toward Tear Stain like a living dragon and thrust 7 times in a row using Dragonbone Flurry!

Tear Stain hastily assumed a Guard stance to reduce the incoming damage. After the skill had dispersed her Unusual Physique[1], Li Chengfeng immediately smashed the shaft of his halberd into the Korean girl’s shoulder and pushed her toward the wall behind her!

Bang!

Bits of stone flew everywhere as Tear Stain crashed into the wall. However, she was able to slip away from Li Chengfeng’s assault by descending toward the ground at high speed. After taking out two low-health Dragonlight Cavalrymen, she flew toward Burning City and left behind a final threat, "Just you wait, The Koreans will never surrender!"

……

Standing inside the territory and staring at Tear Stain’s departing figure, I said smilingly, "No problem. We’ll just kill all of you."

Chaos Moon trotted up to me and said, "Wow, you are not kind toward the fairer sex at all."

"She’s Candlelight Shadow’s woman. Why the hell would I be kind toward her?[2]"

I took a seat on a giant totem pole within the city and said, "Brother Xu Yang, go take out the NPC lord and abandon the city. Chaos Moon, give me the casualty report. Also, we’re going to head back to Burning City right after we looted the battlefield. There isn’t much time left on the clock now."

Chaos Moon nodded and leaped onto the totem pole. Then, she put away the Dihai Shield and took a seat next to me. While pulling my legs onto her thighs and pounding it lightly like an obedient concubine, she reported smilingly, "We’ve annihilated almost 200k Throne of the Wild players within the city, and 600k Nation Guardian players outside of it. However, it was not without its cost. Our numbers have dwindled to less than 300k players, and Blazing Hot Lips only have around a hundred thousand. Also, 6 million or so Chinese players are sieging Burning City, so we still have some time!"

I smiled. "Huh. I thought it would be lower, to be honest. Everyone’s a grizzled veteran these days…"

Chaos Moon blinked. "Should I give the order to launch a strong assault against Burning City and occupy it as soon as possible?"

However, I shook my head and said, "No. As you say, we still have some time, so let’s take this slow and steady…"

"But why?" He Yi asked while landing behind me. When she saw Chaos Moon giving my legs a light pounding, she chuckled. "What are you doing, Chaos Moon? Have you decided to become a masseur or something?"

Chaos Moon immediately rose to her feet and declared, "No. It’s just the responsibility and duty of all female corps commanders to serve our exalted vice leader, is all…"

My mouth twitched. "You say that, but your tone sounds like I should be dragged to the execution ground…"

He Yi chided, "Focus. Why did you suggest that we should take it slow, Lu Chen?"

"It’s simple…" I gritted my teeth and explained, "According to Intelligence Agency, the Northern Alliance still has quite a number of forces under their command despite their apparent defeat. For example, Vienna’s Sorrow still commands 1 million Hero Alliance elites, and the Germans of Chariot City have barely made a move since the start of this Nation War. No one knows if they’re planning to do nothing for the whole war, or if they’re planning a last-minute assault or something. What we do know is that they currently have the highest number of online players in this war—7 million to be exact."

Lian Xin descended from the sky with widened eyes. "Oh? The German server has that many elites? Why didn’t they make any move?"

He Yi answered, "Maybe it’s because they felt our fury and knew that there was no way they could win… Maybe they think that the best play here is to protect Chariot City with everything they have."

I nodded. "Yes. That is why we need to lure out Hero Alliance and Chariot City’s forces if we are to accrue even more achievements in this war. Currently, the best way to do that is to conquer Burning City, the southern gate of the Northern Alliance. They—or at least Vienna’s Sorrow—knows full well that we’ll have a direct path into their hinterland if Burning City was to be conquered."

"In that case, why haven’t they sent any reinforcements yet?" Beiming Xue asked.

"They’re waiting," I replied.

"Waiting for what?"

"Waiting for Burning City to deplete our forces. They’ll only show up to reinforce Burning City during the last five hours because they believe that, even if we managed to defeat them all and conquer Burning City in the end, we still won't have enough time to conquer their main cities. Long story short, it is the surest way to secure their main cities. It is also why Tear Stain is still hanging on until now. She knows that the strongest reinforcements will arrive in Burning City as long as she holds out until the final hours."

Gui Guzi gripped his Ghostblade Halberd and grinned. "Looks like the war isn’t purely a contest of strength after all. At the very least, Boss Broken Halberd is fighting a psychological war against the enemy."

He Yi chuckled. "What can you do? Uncle Zhang Chun is gone, so Lu Chen is now the King of Hanzhong…"

I nearly spat blood. "King of Hanzhong? Come on…"

Li Chengfeng let out a polite cough before speaking, "Guild leaders, I just received news that, after conquering Elephant City, A Snowy Night Below 30 Degrees and her army of 10 million has proceeded to conquer the main cities of smaller countries such as Pakistan and more. They’ve united almost the entire southern frontier in just 48 hours, and even the part of the outer lands where Lu Chen had stayed for a short time had fallen under their control as well. Just now, they have arrived at Final Duel Valley…"

"Huh…"

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Very surprised by the news, He Yi looked at me for directions. "Do you think this is normal, Lu Chen?"

I gripped my fists tightly. "It’s perfectly normal for them to conquer cities and territories for their own gain, but the Russian server should know that Pakistan’s Proud Dragon City, Greedy Wolf City and more are our allies. So why have they conquered those main cities? Are they trying to lay claim to all the lands to the south?"

Li Chengfeng nodded in agreement. "It’s not impossible. Our ally hides a lot of things up their sleeves."

I said, "The Indian server has already lost one of their two main cities. If I had to guess, Frostsword City is planning to conquer Cyan Earth City next. If they succeed, Frostsword City will be able to pose a direct threat to our main cities and turn all future wars into north versus south wars! No, no, this isn’t good. This isn’t good at all…"

Gui Guzi looked confused, but he asked honestly, "What do we do then?"

"After the battlefield is looted, we’re attacking Cyan Earth City and claiming it for ourselves! Then, we’ll stay there and see if Frostsword City will attack. If they dare, then we’ll fight them to the bitter end!"

"Okay!"

……

It didn’t take long for the looting to finish. After the regent was killed, the entire Sky Barren City lost its luster and crumbled into ruins almost instantly. Without pause, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Blazing Hot Lips 300k-strong army marched south and headed straight toward Cyan Earth City. Had Nation Guardian not disregarded his order and come to Tear Stain’s aid, I doubted that either we or the Russians would’ve been able to take Cyan Earth City in a short time. However, Wild King had been taken out by Li Chengfeng, and only ten or twenty percent of Nation Guardian’s troops had been able to make it back to their main city. They were now only as strong as a toothless tiger. As a bonus, we even did Candlelight Shadow a favor and prevented his beautiful junior sister from attending an offline meeting with Wild King!

It took us 30 minutes to pass through Soaring Flame Desert. Soon, the magnificent city that was Cyan Earth City appeared before us. In the past, just the sight of the city would’ve struck fear into our hearts. Now though, the Nation War interface showed that there were only 500k Indian players or so across the entire domain, not to mention that the large majority of them were non-combatants. It was about as strong as an empty city.

When I flew over the limestone path leading up to the main city and saw the sparse amount of defenders on the walls, I knew that the main city was going to fall to our legion of champions!

Chiang!

I unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and cried, "Strong assault! Take down that gate!"

Gui Guzi, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, Heaven’s Rain and several thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen rushed forward to bring down the gate. Lian Xin, Beiming Xue and the Dragonlight Archers lay down suppressive fire on the walls and prevented the defenders from doing practically anything at all. Lian Xin’s Attack especially nearly one-shot every player who dared to stand in her path. We hadn’t even made it inside the city yet, but the death and despair permeating the walls felt almost tangible.

……

"Careful. Cyan Earth City still has around 3 million NPC troops!" He Yi warned.

I nodded. "Yeah. Brother Xu Yang, please lead the direct charge. Flyers, follow me to fly into the royal palace and kill the regent directly. We’re going to choose the Conquer option this time!"

"Okay!"

……

57 minutes later.

Crack!

After the head of Stuttgart VII rolled across the steps of the royal chamber, I grabbed the royal scepter he dropped, and stepped on top of his throne. The system immediately offered me three options—occupy, abandon or conquer!

1. T/N: this probably suggests that the skill has a damage limit E/N: Like 20 chapters ago something similar happened to Beiming Xue or Lian Xin, but it was an even more off-hand mention ☜

2. T/N: basically confirming that LCF was trying to gaslight TS kappa ☜